Front Row Features

HOLLYWOOD—Academy Award winner Nicole Kidman (“The Hours”), Mia Wasikowska and Matthew Goode star in the suspense thriller “Stoker,” which comes out on Blu-ray and DVD Tuesday.

Directed by critically acclaimed filmmaker Park Chan-wook (“Oldboy”), “Stoker” tells the story of India Stoker (Wasikowska), who meets Charlie (Goode), her long-lost charismatic uncle following her father’s death on her 18th birthday. When Charlie moves in with India and her unstable mother (Kidman), both are drawn to his charming and calming demeanor. But it soon becomes clear that Charlie’s arrival was no coincidence, and the shocking secrets of his past could affect India’s future.

The Blu-ray special features include “An Exclusive Look: A Filmmaker’s Journey,” deleted scenes, behind-the-scenes features, a free song download of Emily Wells’ “Becomes the Color.”

Ringo Star at the kick off of the exhibit “Ringo: Peace & Love” held at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, CA on Tuesday, June 11, 2013. Photo by Michael Hixon.

By ANGELA DAWSON

Front Row Features

HOLLYWOOD—Ringo Starr, one of only two living Beatles, was on hand at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles Tuesday to kick off the exhibit “Ringo: Peace & Love,” the first major display of the musician’s memorabilia.

The 72-year-old was in top form, dressed in all black, wearing his trademark sunglasses indoors. He joked and reminisced with an audience of journalists from around the world.

The limited-run exhibit, which opens Wednesday, June 12, offers visitors an unprecedented in-depth look at all aspects of Starr’s musical and creative life—as a musician, artist, actor, and as the man the world knows and loves simply as Ringo. It also emphasizes Starr’s universal message of peace and love.

The scope of the exhibit spans Ringo’s early life growing up in Liverpool, from his music with Rory Storm’s Raving Texans and Hurricanes groups, the Beatles, his career as a solo artist and mostly recently his tenure his All-Starrs with whom he continues to tour. The next leg of his world tour picks up in Latin America this fall, with concert dates set in Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina, Peru and Mexico before he and his band head to the United States for a two-night gig Nov. 22-23 at The Palms in Las Vegas.

The Grammy Museum exhibit is a unique collection that brings together diverse artifacts, rare and never before seen photographs (some taken by Ringo), documents, personal letters and footage.

Separately, never-before-seen behind-the-scenes photos of the Beatles taken by Starr are included in his new book “Photograph.” The e-book’s publication is in conjunction with the exhibit. Starr’s photographs and stories “portray four lads from Liverpool, trying to live normal lives amidst the frenzy that surrounded them,” he writes. The renowned drummer previously wrote about his Beatles experience in the autobiographical “Postcards From the Boys.”

Q: How did this exhibit come about?

Ringo: I have to thank (my wife) Barbara (Bach) because at the start of last year, out of the blue, we decided we would archive my stuff. We did it in a very charming way. Then out of the blue, Bob (Santelli, executive director of the museum) asked if we could have a meeting and said, “Let’s have a Grammy Museum exhibit on Ringo.” We did have to work a lot harder after he said that, and a lot faster, because we had a (deadline) on it. Oh yeah, here’s a shirt.

Q: What did you find the most fascinating about compiling the items for the exhibit?

Ringo: The most incredible thing about putting it together was that I found so much stuff I didn’t know I had. So I’d like to thank two assistants I’ve had over the years. They put (the items) in hanging bags and boxes and trunks. And it was like in several trunks and places on the planet. And we pulled it all together.

Q: Are you a packrat?

Ringo: I didn’t personally say, “I’ve got to save that. I’ve got to do this. I’ve got to look after it.” It was just tossed aside, in many ways, a lot of it. When we started looking what we found was incredible. We were looking through stuff and putting them away. There were lots of other people helping us out. And I had these two boxes from my mother. My mother died in 1986, and I took these two boxes away and I did not open them until last year. I thought we’d better look in there. It was like a labyrinth cave. First of all, there was the letter I got from Rory Storm shows you what it’s like to be on stage. He’s written to me to tell me we’re playing on Thursday night. We didn’t have (cell phones) and we didn’t have a (land) phone. So he says “we’re playing Thursday night at the Jive Hive. I’ll bring your cymbals and your money.” So, of course, I went.

Q: What was it like for you as a struggling musician before the Beatles?

Ringo: I didn’t have a car. It was difficult for a drummer in those days not to have one. I’d take the snare drum to the gigs. I begged a drummer who had his whole kit there, “Let’s use your kit, man.” Sometimes they said yes and sometimes they said no. When I did get a car, and would be able to take my kit to the venues, other drummers would ask me, “Can I use your kit, man?” And I’d say, “sure.”  To the musicians in the audience, if I let someone use my kit and he sat on the drum stool and he put his foot on the bass drum beater, it was like he was starting a motorbike. So then I’d say, “Excuse me. Get off!” Anyway, that’s how it was. I’m real happy that we have this exhibit. A lot of people are involved. I’d like to say I did it all, but I got a lot of help.

Q: What does it mean to you to have an exhibit at the Grammy Museum?

Ringo: It’s the only place. I’m a musician. It should be here. We had the drum in the Metropol a couple of years ago in New York. The Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame had a couple of my pieces, but the Grammy (Museum) was an exact place for me, I thought. I can do it in all honesty here, because it is The Grammy Museum and it’s music. That’s what I do; I play music.

Q: When you were collecting these artifacts and strolling down memory lane, what did Richard Starkey (Starr’s real name) learn about Ringo Starr?

Ringo: He really learned that he loves the drums. That’s all I ever wanted to play. I didn’t want to play anything else. From when I was 13, I wanted to play drums. Several years later when I got some real drums—bring in the violins. I was asked the other day, “What is your main thing—is it drumming, is it singing?” And it’s always been playing the drums. That’s what I do.

Q: What are your feelings about the Beatles musical legacy you helped create?

Ringo: Yeah. I love it. I do love it because I’m really proud of the music we made. It took a while, but we were very serious players, and the results are still being played today. That’s what’s great. (Grammy Museum director) Bob talked about those very young grandfathers of 65 and their kids (coming to the museum). (He chuckles.) It’s still going on. How great is that? The memories I have of those days are … I’d like to say every minute was great but it wasn’t. But, overall, the emotion was great. We worked hard. We only wanted to be musicians. We didn’t sit around and say, “Let’s be famous.” We said, “Let’s be musicians.”  So, as you all know, unless you’re from another planet, the Beatles became very famous. That was part of it but the music is most important thing you do.

Q: Who was your idol growing up?

Ringo: The main hero of mine was Lightnin’ Hopkins. I loved the blues. Life is weird, if you haven’t heard the story, when I was 18, I went to the American consulate in Liverpool because I wanted to move to Houston, Texas, because Lightnin’ was from there. I was working at a factory at the time and looking at factory jobs in Houston. We went to the embassy and they gave us all these forms to fill out. So we filled them out—this friend of mine and I—and went back and gave them these forms, and then they gave us more forms. We didn’t know. Life is a strange path; you’re just on it.

Q: It was almost 50 years ago when the Beatles had a summit meeting with Elvis in Hollywood. Did you jam with him?

Ringo: We didn’t jam with Elvis. I don’t know who said that. The big memory was we walked in and he was on the settee watching TV, and he had a TV commander (remote control), and he was like, “Wow!” We were fans of Elvis. When he came in, he was just incredible. For me, I grew up watching Bill Haley and a lot of other guys, but they all seemed like your dad. But Elvis, for me, was the first one that wasn’t like my dad. He was just a couple of years older. That’s all. We didn’t jam and we didn’t play American football. Although him and his guys did. We didn’t know how to play that.

Q: After the “A Hard Day’s Night” film, there was a lot of pressure for you to do a follow up. Can you speak about how the recording of “Help!” came about and your recording of the album?

Ringo: After “A Hard Day’s Night,” for us we were making a movie and that was great. We made the songs anyway. Then they thought we’ll make another one, in color. That was a big deal. So what was the story going to be? Anyway, I enjoyed “A Hard Day’s Night” so much that they started to write (“Help!”) around me and the big ring. (He laughs.) Anyway, the music. We had a job. We didn’t specifically make it to move that plot on, like they do now. We just made records. We made single records and then put it on an album. John was in a state of mind when he wrote “Help!” He’s been quoted many times (responding to the question), How were you feeling at the time? And he said, “Well, I did write ‘Help!’.”

Q: When is “Let it Be” coming out on DVD or Blu-ray?

Ringo: Any minute now.

The Janoskians on stage at The Janoskians Concert held at House of Blues in West Hollywood, CA on Wednesday, June 5, 2013. Photo by Peter Gonzaga_Pacific Rim Photo Press

By PETERSON GONZAGA
Front Row Features

HOLLYWOOD—Hailing from Australia, the Janoskians (an acronym for Just Another Name Of Silly Kids) have been know for their clips on YouTube as pranksters and comedians. The boys—Beau Brooks, Jai Brooks, Luke Brooks, Daniel Sahyounie and James Yammouni— are now a music act. Although they have the looks of a boy band, don’t call them that as they state they are first and foremost pranksters. Even their current tour is dubbed Not A Boy Band Tour.

Their popularity and possibility as a new music act came to fruition as Sony Music Australia signed the Janoskians to a record deal in 2012.  Their first single was  ”Set This World On Fire.” They have also recently signed up with Jay Sean’s new entertainment company Kamouflage Entertainment with business associates Jeremy Skaller and Thara Prashad.

The boys admit they don’t sing well or dance great but they don’t make any excuses for it. The public has overlooked that fact as their fans have embraced their realness as they delve into the music scene. The support was evident during their recent sold out show at the House of Blues in West Hollywood, Calif. Fans lined the venue at least three hours in advance of the doors opening.

“Starting off as YouTube pranksters, we could’ve never dreamed of not only releasing a single through a big company like Sony, but topping in the charts, said Beau Brooks. “It’s a great achievement and we’re just happy our fans could enjoy our music just as much as we do.”

When asked by Chris Trondsen of Pacific Rim Video if it’s a big deal to sell out the House of Blues, they were surprised. Luke Brooks explains, “Our support act said it is kind of a big deal to sell out the House of Blues that’s when I thought that “Wow, we did that?”‘

“People are saying you know you’ve made it when you sell out the House of Blues. I didn’t know how big it was. I thought it was just a name,” added Beau Brooks.

As they wind up their tour in America, the next single to be release is “Best Friends.”

HOLLYWOOD—The life of legendary country artist Hank Williams is depicted in “The Last Ride,” which arrives on Blu-ray and DVD June 4 from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. Featuring an all-star cast including Henry Thomas (“E.T.: The Extra-terrestrial”), Jesse James (“Jumper”), Kaley Cuoco (“The Big Bang Theory”), Fred Dalton Thompson (“Law & Order”) and Stephen Tobolowsky (“Californication”), this powerful drama retraces the final days of a true American icon.

Based on the controversial life story of singer-songwriter, “The Last Ride” tells the powerful tale of country music’s original bad boy. The man, the myth and the music come together when Williams travels from Alabama to a series of New Year’s shows in West Virginia and Ohio. It’s a journey that leads straight into the heart and soul of the legendary performer as he takes one last shot at redemption. This biopic features all-new versions of Hank Williams’ greatest songs.

With 11 number one songs throughout his career, including “Your Cheatin’ Heart,” “Hey, Good Lookin’,” and “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” Williams’ music continues to touch people’s lives long after his passing 60 years ago. (His son and grandson also are prominent country music entertainers.)

Former President Bill Clinton has said of “The Last Ride” that it “takes us back to rural America in the 1950s, tells the story simply, and uses the music deftly, both to intensify the drama and to remind us of the timeless genius of Hank Williams.” Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee added “it’s a beautifully crafted and creative vehicle for telling the story of almost every gifted musician or actor who must reconcile the desire within to simply be a great artist and the demands of the public to be an accessible and accommodating celebrity.”

“The Last Ride” Blu-ray and DVD includes a making-of featurette.

Emeli Sande being interviewed by Chris Trondsen on the red carpet of season 12 “American Idol” finale. ©PRV/FRFW. CR: Peter Gonzaga.

By Peterson Gonzaga

Front Row Features Wire

Los Angeles – It’s only been two years since UK music artist hit the music scene as a featured artist on various rappers’ singles such as Chipmunk’s single “Diamond Rings” and Wiley’s “Never Be Your Woman.”

After three hit singles in the UK, Sande has finally crossed the ocean onto American shores with her song “Next To Me.” Illustrating the growth of her popularity, Sande made a surprise appearance at this season’s “American Idol” singing her song with 4th place runner up Amber Holcomb.

She’s been surprised of all the love and support that America has shown to her especially having her songs performed on “American Idol.” Sande says, “I feel very lucky. Coming here and seeing the momentum building, I’m really excited in introducing my music over here.”

While walking the red carpet arrivals of the show, Emeli Sande told Front Row Features correspondent Chris Trondsen that she would love to work with Bruno Mars. She added, “I thinks out there doing something really cool.”

Emeli Sande heads back to the U.K. but will return to the U.S. in July for a tour.

AMERICAN IDOL: Kree Harrison performs on AMERICAN IDOL Wednesday, May 15, (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. CR: Ray Mickshaw / FOX. © Copyright 2013 FOX BROADCASTING.

By Peterson Gonzaga

Hollywood – It was all about emotions as country diva Kree Harrison and soulful diva Candice Glover crooned for America’s votes as they sing on a bigger stage at the Nokia Theater at LA Live for the finale performance show of “American Idol.”

Harrison opened up the night with her angelic rendition of Sarah McLauglin’s “In The Arms of An Angel.” But it was Candice Glover’s opening number “Chasing Pavements” that gave round one of three to Glover. But Harrison redeemed herself with her own possible single “All Cried Out.”

For Candice, her possible new single “I Am Beautiful” brought an emotional connection the Glover. According to Glover backstage, she connected automatically to the song as soon as she first heard the song. “I got emotional in the middle of the song but I couldn’t stop because I didn’t want to go off key and then at the end I got emotional again because I connected with the lyrics. It was definitely easy to put myself into the lyrics.”

In between the “American Idol” three song performance, pop star Carly Rae Jepson debuted her new song “Take A Picture” on stage. As part of the special Coca Cola’s “Perfect Harmony” program, throughout the weeks of “American Idol,” fans into help shape Jepson’s song and performance number. Being a top 3 “Candian Idol,” contestant, Carly Rae said she was a bit nervous performance on the “American Idol” stage.

A piece of advice Jepson had for the two lovely ladies was, “Don’t stop fighting. After the show, your real battle begins.”

Kree Harrison hopes she’s have a big birthday present tomorrow with the title of American Idol. “My birthday is the day after the finale,” Harrison whimsically said. “Vote for me for my birthday!”

Harrison’s birthday wish may not come true as Candice’s last performance of Shirley Bassey’s “I Who Have Nothing” brought the crowd and the judges to their feet.

Kree and Candice’s onstage battle ends tonight as the results show will crown America’s new American Idol for season 12.

“American Idol” airs its finale tonight (Thursday, May 16) on your local Fox Channel.

“Broadway Musicals: A Jewish Legend.” (Box Art). ©Athena.

By ANGELA DAWSON
Front Row Features

HOLLYWOOD—Michael Kantor, who won an Emmy in 2005 for his “Broadway: The American Musical,” a six-part series hosted by Julie Andrews, is back with yet another look at the Great White Way with “Broadway Musicals: A Jewish Legacy.”

Having explored the history of the New York stage in-depth in the award-winning series, the filmmaker was ready to move on. That’s when he received a call from producer Barbara Brilliant who asked him why he hadn’t explored how the Jewish culture had influenced the birth of that American art form. Kantor responded that he thought it would be a whole separate story and perhaps someone else should tell it. Also, getting the rights to use the music and performance clips would be expensive, and in a tough economy, raising money to make a follow up film would be challenging.

Brilliant was nothing if not persistent. She raised the money and found a way to pull Kantor off of a project he was working on.

“She had the passion for it that I inherited,” he recalls by phone from New York. “If someone in this financial climate goes out and finds money (to finance) it, it makes it much more pleasurable to do because making a documentary is tough.”

“Broadway Musicals: A Jewish Legacy” examines the unique role of Jewish composers and lyricists in the creation of the modern American musical. Kantor serves as director and Brilliant is the executive producer.

Having first aired in January on PBS, the documentary is now available on DVD through Acorn Media. It retails for $39.99. Fascinating and ambitious, it showcases the work of legends such as Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, George and Ira Gershwin, Lorenz Hart, Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II, Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim and others. Broadway veteran Joel Grey serves as narrator.

“Broadway Musicals: A Jewish Legacy” combines cultural history and interviews with songwriters and luminaries including Sheldon Harnick, Stephen Schwartz, Harold Prince, Arthur Laurents, Charles Strouse and Mel Brooks. Standout performances and footage rarely seen, including a 1964 TV clip of Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick performing a still incomplete version of “Tradition” from “Fiddler on the Roof,” are included.

In addition to the 84-minute documentary, the DVD set includes three hours of bonus features on a separate disc. Additional interview clips and performances, a 16-page viewer’s guide featuring reflections on Jewish Broadway with an introduction by Brilliant and a biography of narrator Grey comprise the second disc.

Q: You had so much material for this. How do you decide what to use and what to cut?

Kantor: When I started this project, I thought it would either be a seven-minute story or a seven-hour story. Somehow, we ended up in the middle. There were just so many amazing things that couldn’t be crammed in. I was glad that Acorn Media was really keen to have a whole other disc with for the bonus material.

Q: After making the six-part “Broadway” series, did you considered making this a longer form series?

Kantor: We thought about creating additional 30-minute programs that focused on different composers and lyricists. The thing about music documentaries is that licensing music is really not cheap, both in terms of the music itself and the clips of performances. I don’t know if we could have raised enough money to put together a six or eight hour series. Also, in the same way that the creators of “Fiddler on the Roof” didn’t want to appeal solely to a Jewish Hadassah women’s group audience, we wanted the documentary to have universal appeal. The 90-minute form is nice for one sitting. With the DVD extras, the people who are really engaged can get that much more out of it.

Q: How did you select what in the film?

Kantor: Our organizing principle was that it’s a story of composers and lyricists. Theodore Bikel tells an amazing story that ended up on the cutting room floor, but it’s on the DVD’s extras. He’s not a composer or lyricist but he played Captain von Trapp (on Broadway) in “The Sound of Music.”

Q: The film has funny moments about these composers lives but also tragic moments involving anti-Semitism, like when Charles Strouse (the composer of “Annie” and “Bye Bye Birdie”) recalls being tied to a tree and set on fire when he was young.

Kantor: He wrote, “Put on a Happy Face.” He appears later in the story not only because he was born a little later (than the other composers) but I thought it was really important to not top load this history with tragedy. It’s a joyful art form. It’s a celebration, and it makes people feel good. It was nice that that layer of the story shows up when it does, which is about three-quarters of the way through. Hopefully, by then, the viewers are really engaged and hooked on the evolution and different connections. I’d never heard a story like that. You hear about people being picked on and not getting a job because of prejudice but that’s like out of a movie. It’s horrifying.

Q: Many of the composers in your documentary were newly arrived immigrants or sons of immigrants. Immigration is a hot political issue right now. How recently did you make this?

Kantor: We finished it in late October and it aired on PBS in January. Part of it is that themes (like immigration) are timeless. We weren’t thinking of the current immigration debate. Since the time of “West Side Story,” that’s been a powerful topic for people to argue about and discuss and create laws over. We wanted to choose the stories that connected most strongly with today’s audience—whether it was a story from the 1920s or a story from the 1980s.

Q: Was there something that came up in making this that surprised you?

Kantor: Seeing Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock in the footage we use, which I don’t think has been seen on television since it originally aired in 1964, was really kind of staggering to see because we think of “Fiddler on the Roof” as this monumental achievement that’s been around the world a million times. We forget that there was a moment where they were deciding this song or that song and this lyric or that lyric. That was a real joy. The other thing that surprised me was when Joel Grey signed on as narrator was that he had this history. His father, Mickey Katz, specialized in writing Jewish parody songs. He’d sing, “Home on the Range” in Yiddish. So Joel really connected with the material and he brought something special to it. You can hear it in his reading. He made a couple of suggestions, which we took. I was keen to tell stories I hadn’t told in the “Broadway” series. Kurt Weill and Jule Styne—those are two titans of the Broadway musical that weren’t mentioned in the series, but they get their due in this.

Q: Why didn’t you include Marvin Hamlisch?

Kantor: I did an interview with Marvin Hamlisch for the Broadway series and could have used portions of that. But we spoke on the phone about two or three months before he died. I’d been pestering him for an interview. I told him “You’ve got to be part of this.” His feeling was anything that would draw the public’s attention to Jewish achievement could also become the focus of pushback, where people could take an anti-Semitic stance. He said he didn’t want to be associated with anything that ‘s patting itself on the back or breast-beating or saying, “Look at these terrific achievements that we, the Jewish people, have had.” I tried to explain to him (that the documentary was) about a cultural history. It spans 70 years or so, and it’s not saying, “This guy was great and this guy wasn’t.” We included (non-Jewish composer) Cole Porter. But I understand his point of view. It was late in his life. I think he knew he was terminally ill so I didn’t think it was appropriate to use an older interview just to include him.

Q: “Fiddler on the Roof” was a bit of a turning point where it was about Jewish characters depicting a specifically Jewish experience.

Kantor: Originally, I was thinking the film should end with “Fiddler on the Roof,” because if Irving Berlin saw a pogrom destroy his house (in what is now Belarus) and comes to America and he goes to a Broadway theater where he sees other people who’ve dramatized that exact type of story as high art, isn’t that a nice narrative arc? After that, is there much to say? But as one of our commentators says, “You’ve made it. You’re accepted by society. Now what?” There are other challenges and stories that continued after 1964.

Q: Do you think you’ll continue to explore Broadway? What other stories are you interested in telling?

Kantor: I’m always interested in Broadway stories. There’s always more to tell. Right now, I’m finishing a three-part history on superheroes. It’s called “Superheroes: A Never-Ending Battle.” I’m looking at how, out of the Great Depression, sprang these characters, which, coincidentally, had predominantly Jewish creators. The creators of Superman, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, were Jewish. It’s interesting one follows the other. That will come out on PBS in October.

The Blu-ray version of “The Great Escape” is now available. ©MGM/Fox Home Entertainment

By a Front Row Features Staff Reporter

HOLLYWOOD—Nearly a half-century ago, the hero of the summer box didn’t have superpowers but was merely an extraordinarily brave and brilliant American prisoner of war (played by action star Steve McQueen), who managed to escape the Nazis in “The Great Escape.”

To mark that half-century milestone, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment have released a Blu-ray edition of the now classic action adventure with an all-new transfer. In addition to McQueen, the action-packed film starred Charles Bronson, Richard Attenborough, James Garner and James Coburn. Directed by Academy Award nominee John Sturges (“Bad Day at Black Rock”), “The Great Escape” was designated one of The American Film Institute’s “100 Most Thrilling American Films.” The film premiered July 4, 1963.

MGM and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment are hosting several events around the world to showcase the remastered Blu-ray. The film, based on the Paul Brickhill book of the same name, will receive a limited theatrical re-release in cities across the globe, with additional initiatives coming throughout the year.

Based on a true story, “The Great Escape was called “a motion picture that entertains, captivates, thrills and stirs” by Variety magazine in 1963.

Set in 1943, McQueen plays Captain Virgil Hilts, a.k.a. “The Cooler King,” the mastermind of a bold escape plan from a maximum-security prison-of-war camp, designed to hold even the craftiest escape artists. By housing all their most notorious American POWs in one place, the Germans unwittingly have assembled the finest escape team in military history.

The Blu-ray comes fully loaded with more than three hours of special features, including commentary by director Sturges and his cast and crew, multiple making-of featurettes, the original theatrical trailer and more. The retail price is $19.99.

AMERICAN IDOL: Amber Holcomb (L) is eliminated on AMERICAN IDOL Thursday, May 2 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. Also pictured: Kree Harrison (C) and Ryan Seacrest (R). CR: Frank Micelotta / FOX. Copyright: FOX.

By PETERSON GONZAGA

Front Row Features

HOLLYWOOD— The week before, there was a sigh of relief from the Top 4 contestants of “American Idol” as all four were safe from elimination. This week was a different story as one more would leave the “American Idol” stage leave three standing to head home for their triumphant homecoming before battling it out again next week.

As the lights were dimmed, with Kree Harrison and Amber Holcomb standing before Ryan Seacrest, one would take it harder and cry harder on stage than any other eliminated contestant this season.

According to Jimmy Iovine being good with both performance my not save the humble Kree Harrison. For Amber Holcomb, it has been a struggle as she had been consistently in the bottom two week after week. That consistency would end as Amber Holcomb’s name was called out to go home.

It was a tough moment for Holcomb as she had to sing her swan song before leaving the stage. Not being able to finish the last few words illustrated the impact of Amber’s elimination. She was joined on stage with her father causing the whole audience to tear up as well.

Helping to dry her eyes after the show, Randy Jackson assured her that this is not the end but the beginning for her earlier than the rest of the girls left onstage.

Front Row Features/Pacific Rim Video correspondent Chris Trondsen asked Holcomb, “What was it that set you off in your tearful mood?”

“I feel that leaving everybody and then knowing there is no save, that you’re already gone. That was just hard,” says Amber. “It’s the fact that I’m just leaving and not being able to talk to my girls and have our insiders and stuff. But, I don’t know.”

It’s not an overall goodbye for Amber as she returns back to the American Idol stage during the finale. Trondsen asked, “If you war paired up with a celebrity music artist during the finale, who would that be?”

“Oh my gosh. Rihanna, Miguel, Frank Ocean or Beyonce.”

On a brighter note, Amber can’t wait for the American Idol Tour to start. She’ll be looking forward to more insider moments and killing it on stage without worrying about any eliminations.

“American Idol” returns next week with the Top 3 contestants

consisting of Candice Glover, Angie Miller and Kree Harrison.”

Front Row Features

Songstress Sarah Brightman made headlines last year when she announced she wants to be the first musician to travel to the International Space Station.

As if to make her point, Brightman’s new album “Dreamchaser” is an ode to the beauty and wonderment of space. It combines covers of an eclectic variety of songs including Paul McCartney’s Venus and Mars and a new arrangement of Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells called Closer.

“I’m excited to be releasing Dreamchaser,” the British soprano said about her 11-track album. “This album was recorded at a particularly exciting time of my life with a number of new adventures beginning to materialize. The music has been informed by not only my past experiences but also my future aims and aspirations.”

“Dreamchaser” is a collaboration of Brightman (best known for her defining stage role in “Phantom of the Opera” as well as her chart-topping duet with Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, Time to Say Goodbye), and veteran producer Mike Hedges, known for his iconic work with U2, The Cure and Dido.

The first single, One Day Like This, is a unique interpretation of the British band Elbow’s single.

Brightman also delivers an ethereal version of Sigur Ros’ Glosoli, which features new English lyrics written by Squeeze’s Chris Difford.

“Dreamchaser” marks Brightman’s 11th studio album, following the release of “Symphony,” which was released in 2008 and sold nearly three million units worldwide.

Accompanying the release of the album, Brightman is setting off on a Dreamchaser World Tour. It is set to kick off in China in June, with the North American leg of the tour beginning in September. A complete list of all North American concert dates can be found at sarahbrightman.com/tours.

ABC News reported last year that Brightman had to pay the Russian space agency more than the $51 million NASA budgets on average to send its astronauts to the station. No date has been set for her adventure aboard the Russian spacecraft Soyuz, though it likely will be in 2014 or 2015.